DOI: 10.1175/2007jamc1538.1. Supplying Baseload Power and Reducing Transmission Requirements by Interconnecting Wind Farms

Supplying Baseload Power and Reducing Transmission Requirements by Interconnecting Wind Farms

10.1175/2007jamc1538.1

Crossref journal-article

American Meteorological Society

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology (12)

Abstract

Abstract Wind is the world’s fastest growing electric energy source. Because it is intermittent, though, wind is not used to supply baseload electric power today. Interconnecting wind farms through the transmission grid is a simple and effective way of reducing deliverable wind power swings caused by wind intermittency. As more farms are interconnected in an array, wind speed correlation among sites decreases and so does the probability that all sites experience the same wind regime at the same time. The array consequently behaves more and more similarly to a single farm with steady wind speed and thus steady deliverable wind power. In this study, benefits of interconnecting wind farms were evaluated for 19 sites, located in the midwestern United States, with annual average wind speeds at 80 m above ground, the hub height of modern wind turbines, greater than 6.9 m s−1 (class 3 or greater). It was found that an average of 33% and a maximum of 47% of yearly averaged wind power from interconnected farms can be used as reliable, baseload electric power. Equally significant, interconnecting multiple wind farms to a common point and then connecting that point to a far-away city can allow the long-distance portion of transmission capacity to be reduced, for example, by 20% with only a 1.6% loss of energy. Although most parameters, such as intermittency, improved less than linearly as the number of interconnected sites increased, no saturation of the benefits was found. Thus, the benefits of interconnection continue to increase with more and more interconnected sites.

Bibliography

Archer, C. L., & Jacobson, M. Z. (2007). Supplying Baseload Power and Reducing Transmission Requirements by Interconnecting Wind Farms. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 46(11), 1701â1717.

Authors 2

Cristina L. Archer (first)
Mark Z. Jacobson (first)

References 32 Referenced 187

10.1002/0470012684 / Wind Power in Power Systems. by Ackermann (2005)
10.1109/MPAE.2005.1524621 / IEEE Power Energy Mag. / The future of wind forecasting and utility operations. by Ahlstrom (2005)
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10.1029/2004JD005099 / J. Geophys. Res. / Corrections to “Spatial and temporal distribution of U.S. winds and wind power at 80 m derived from measurements”. by Archer (2004)
10.1029/2004JD005462 / J. Geophys. Res. / Evaluation of global wind power. by Archer (2005)
10.1029/2005JD006098 / J. Geophys. Res. / Comments on “Evaluation of a wind power parameterization using tower observations”. by Archer (2006)
Czisch, G., and B.Ernst, 2001: High wind power penetration by the systematic use of smoothing effects within huge catchment areas shown in a European example. Proc. WINDPOWER 2001, Washington, DC, American Wind Energy Association.
10.1109/MPAE.2005.1524619 / IEEE Power Energy Mag. / Wind plant integration. by DeMeo (2005)
Energy Information Administration , cited. 2004: International energy annual 2002. [Available online at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/.].
10.1109/MPAE.2005.1524622 / IEEE Power Energy Mag. / System operation with high wind penetration. by Eriksen (2005)
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General Electric , 2004: 1.5sle/1.5sl/1.5s/1.5se wind turbines. 8 pp. [Available online at http://www.gewindenergy.com.].
Giebel, G. , 2000: On the benefits of distributed generation of wind energy in Europe. Ph.D. thesis, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, 97 pp.
Giebel, G. , 2003: The state-of-the-art in short-term prediction of wind power: A literature overview. Project Anemos, Risø National Laboratory Tech. Rep., Roskilde, Denmark, 36 pp.
10.1002/0470012684.ch8 / Power system requirements for wind power. by Holttinen (2005)
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10.1016/0378-7796(79)90021-X / Electric Power Syst. Res. / The reliability of distributed wind generators. by Kahn (1979)
10.1029/2004JD005614 / J. Geophys. Res. / Evaluation of a wind power parameterization using tower observations. by Lazarus (2005)
10.1002/0471668826 / Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems. by Masters (2004)
10.1002/0470012684.ch20 / Wind power in areas with limited transmission capacity. by Matevosyan (2005)
Milligan, M. R., and R.Artig, 1998: Reliability benefits of dispersed wind resource development. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL/CP-500-24314, Golden, CO, 11 pp.
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Milligan, M. R., and K.Porter, 2005: Determining the capacity value of wind: A survey of methods and implementation. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL/CP-500-38062, Golden, CO, 30 pp.
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10.1002/0470012684.ch12 / Wind power on weak grids in California and the US Midwest. by Romanowitz (2005)
Simonsen, T. K., and B. G.Stevens, 2004: Regional wind energy analysis for the Central United States. Proc. Global Wind Power 2004, Chicago, IL, American Wind Energy Association, 16 pp.
10.1109/MPAE.2005.1524618 / IEEE Power Energy Mag. / Making connections. by Zavadil (2005)

Dates

Type	When
Created	15 years, 1 month ago (July 31, 2010, 10:56 a.m.)
Deposited	4 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 4, 2021, 3:35 p.m.)
Indexed	4 days, 20 hours ago (Aug. 30, 2025, 12:19 p.m.)
Issued	17 years, 10 months ago (Nov. 1, 2007)
Published	17 years, 10 months ago (Nov. 1, 2007)
Published Online	17 years, 10 months ago (Nov. 1, 2007)
Published Print	17 years, 10 months ago (Nov. 1, 2007)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Archer_2007, title={Supplying Baseload Power and Reducing Transmission Requirements by Interconnecting Wind Farms}, volume={46}, ISSN={1558-8424}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2007jamc1538.1}, DOI={10.1175/2007jamc1538.1}, number={11}, journal={Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology}, publisher={American Meteorological Society}, author={Archer, Cristina L. and Jacobson, Mark Z.}, year={2007}, month=nov, pages={1701–1717} }

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